The Unlikely Bromance of Jarelle & Romain

Hi Everyone, welcome to my story of how Romain and I became great friends and how BROography came to be.The fun part is, my version of our friendship is true and Romain’s “fake news” version will clash. So go check out his version here but just remember that anything you read from Romain is, and always will be, “Fake News.”

Now what is a Bromance – A Bromance is a close, emotionally intense, non-sexual bond between two men.It is an exceptionally tight affectional, homosocial male bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy.

Romain and I at Moreton Island (One of my favorite photos)

Romain and I met in Australia. He and I were both studying abroad in Australia at the time at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I was 20 at the time and Romain was 23. Romain and I come from polar opposite sides of the planet, cultures, languages, educational and parental upbringings and socioeconomic status. Astonishingly, our paths crossed.

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area here and for the very first time in my life I got on a plane and flew here, to Australia.

I mean seriously, let’s me put this in perspective for you. If I don’t these are just words on a screen to you.

Here are the numbers:

There are 6.7 BILLION people on this planet

An estimated 200 million university students around the world.

Less than 1% of university students worldwide actually study abroad ~ 2,000,0000

Lastly, 580,000 university students studied abroad in Australia part in 2014.

I would say the odds of us meeting are not impossible but rather unlikely. Uber excited, full of wanderlust, and joy, on a boat filled with international students from all around the world (Sweden, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Brazil, Europe and the United Kingdom).I mean come on! It’s pretty awesome if you can’t get happy by this thought just crawl under a rock and die. There is no hope for happiness in your life 🙂

My first thought when I saw Romain wasn’t one of curiosity or much interest, it was “BOY look at those SIDEburns! I mean what was he thinking? Looks like Wolverine’s stunt double.”

Side rant: Bro, don’t ever do this look again, and I am dying laughing while writing this! #BroCodeViolation

Romain and I continued to converse. I learned that he was French, well-traveled, pursuing his double Masters and becoming more sophisticated.

Continuing to stroke his ego and asking more questions about his person, I asked him the famous question that most “BROs” jump into when speaking about traveling “Which country has the best women?”

And from that, we became best friends!

Ladies, I know, I know typical guy question.

But this is a quintessential question that must be answered before deciding to travel to foreign lands. “Hey, Tyler why did you decide to go to Brazil? You know, I heard the beaches were nice.” REALLY, the beaches?

Nevertheless, I gravitated towards Romain because I knew I could learn a great deal from him. Over the years we have learned a great deal from each other.

Romain was the first person to get me intrigued about books. I never really read growing up, like at all, it wasn’t encouraged by my family or friends. Yet Romain expose me the authors like Tim Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, Malcolm Gladwell and poets like Gil Scott Heron. This helped me attain a level of consciousness school can never transmit. This led my inquisitive nature to read books like the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, all because of Romain.

In addition, he was also managing his own online business selling merchandise from Amazon through his website. This is back into 2014 by the way and I had no idea what search engine optimization or e-commerce websites were. After him showing me Google AdWords and more of SEO I thought he was God at this point!

To help you understand, Romain was a French citizen, selling American products (made in China) and had his check in US dollars, sent to his Australian bank at the time, without paying any taxes or fees.

Like I said, I thought he was God at this point!

I’m from the hood, we don’t do these things.God doesn’t come to the hood.

Also, he is the best research right now. If I need to research on a particular topic, within minutes he sends me at least three resources, minimum, of quality content.

I get information overload sometimes, but I enjoy it!

I’ve also had the pleasure of indulging in a variety of different food cultures and cuisines because of our friendship. Everything from cheeses that you can fry, Paella, Tapas, Caprese salads and much more. I love food so this was a big plus.

Our bond grew even stronger in Australia from sandboarding in Moreton Island, Toga parties, traveling to Noosa Beach and teaching him how to pick up girls on Tinder.

He was no Frank Sinatra, at first. I could see Romain was pretty introverted from our first few engagements, especially with those sideburns. LMAO! Another reason why I believe he gravitated towards me because I was a social butterfly, but over the years he has grown into his own.

But in June 2017, we decided to take a bro trip to Europe where I got to see some of the most exotic places on this planet. Romain planned out an amazing trip that I wouldn’t have been able to execute without him. We got to see Croatia, Ireland, the city of Pompeii, Rome, Vatican City, Capri, Barcelona, and Budapest to name a few locations.

On this trip, it dawned on us to create something of our own, something to share with the world, something to unite people and show that no matter your cultural upbringing, no matter where you were born, no matter the color of your skin, no matter your political differences or pity disagreements, we all share this human experience.

Aside from all the layers of hate, organized confusion and egoism – at our core as human beings, we just want to be loved. BROography is here to showcase this humanistic commonality through friendship, travel and personal growth.

Welcome to BROography!
I am the Co-Creator, Jarelle.
A 25-year-old Fitness Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley with a goal to make people healthier. IG @NerdWithAbsOfficial
I met my best-friend, co-author, business partner & all around bad ass, Romain, in Brisbane, Australia while studying abroad in college. Since then, we have traveled to over 15 countries and 5 continents.
We're so narcissistic we decided "Hey, other people should care about our "BRO-Adventures" so "BRO-ography" was born.
Romain and I are from 2 different worlds yet, we find harmony in our worldly differences and find brotherhood.
My writing style is purely from the heart and soul. I aim to be as authentic as possible for all my readers to enjoy.
I think human beings are fascinating, so I will always write through a lens of empathy and compassion to connect with you. I fear the opinion of no man, which this allows me to be open and vulnerable with myself and you all.
Please share any and all articles of your choosing & thank you for all the support in advance :)

About Us

We are Romain and Jarelle, two bros from opposing backgrounds who have grown through our unlikely friendship. We met while studying abroad in Australia in 2013, but the idea for Broography as a means for sharing our travel adventures and our life discoveries only came in June 2017...

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